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The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Joseph B. Tipton, Jr., Arnold Lumsdaine, Charles Schaich, Gregory R. Hanson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 4 | November 2017 | Pages 616-622
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1350486
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ITER Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system Transmission Lines (TL) require highly polished copper mirrors on miter bends (both 90° and 140°) to direct microwaves from their origin to the tokamak. This will result in substantial heat dissipation on the miter bends and mirrors and will require water cooling in order to achieve long pulse operation. Analysis and optimization of the cooling design for the 140° miter bend assembly used ANSYS® Multiphysics™ software to develop and verify the fluid, thermal, and structural behavior of the mirror and miter bend assembly. Simulation model choices included a thermo-mechanical model of the mirror-only, a thermo-mechanical model of the miter bend assembly, and a thermo-mechanical model of the mirror with coolant. These analyses revealed an optimal solution that uses a major-axis cooling channel configuration for the 140° miter bend to meet the design criteria (e.g. structural stresses, mirror deflection, vacuum seal, coolant temperatures and pressures).
